Diet foods

There are so many conflicting reports on diet foods..or fake sugars no one know what to believe. I do eat a clean diet with hadly any processed foods except for peanut butter and ketchup. I do feel so much better. I do agree that a diet soda is so much better than regular soda. I also think moderation is the key to it all. Finding a balance that you can live with. I fill my diet with whole grains...one a day, lots of fruits, veggies and lean meats. I also believe that it's also not feeling deprived. I include dark chocolate in my eating plan as I am a chocolate girl. I do it once in a while. I also eat onion rings with Dennis once in awhile as I love those and it helps with not feeling deprived.

I try to eat clean the best I can. So no processed foods, no artificial sweeteners, no frozen convenience meals. And let me tell you, I feel a million times better eating this way than I ever did eating processed foods.

It is safe to eat if it is made by a plant, but don't eat it if it is made in a plant.

In other words, whole living foods. Fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. If you want, throw in some good grass fed or free range chicken and beef. I don't touch dairy, but you can have some good raw milk or whole fat greek yougurt (personally I don't do dairy and haven't missed it)

Stay away from boxed foods or ingredients on labels that you can't pronounce. If I can't pronounce it or need a dictionary to determine what it is, I don't eat it.

Another trick I heard was the bigger the label, the more junk in the food so I eat food with teeny labels. How hard it is to put apple on a small label.

the thing is that there isn't one single, simple, plain definition of healthy. it's all relative to what you want to do and what you consider your ultimate goal to be and how what you are eating fits in with that goal. if you love soda and don't want to give it up, caloriewise it makes more sense to have the diet. if you want to be eating as close to nature as possible, regular makes more sense than diet, but less sense than water. so if you want to change your diet, you first have to look at what you are eating, what you think isn't up to snuff, and replace that food with something closer to where you want to be. diet, by the way, simply means what one eats. keep replacing the stuff that doesn't cut it with stuff that does, or is closer to that which does, and you'll eventually get to whatever you deem the healthiest diet for you.

-google first. ask questions later.

LOVE4KITTIES
Posts:
2,054
12/14/12 2:11 A

Just because something is man-made does not mean that it is bad for you and just because something is "natural" does not mean that it is good for you. There are a lot of man-made substances which are beneficial and even many which have saved countless lives and there are plenty of natural substances (e.g. snake venom, arsenic, poisonous mushrooms, etc.) which have killed plenty of people. I will drink a diet soda any day over a regular one. There's a lot of junk science out there related to artificial sweeteners and they get blamed for everything under the sun, but there is no evidence to support these claims.

My best advice is to plug your stats and weight loss goals into Spark People. It will give you ranges for calories, carbs, fats, fiber and protein. Adjust your dietary intake slowly so that the foods you eat fall within these ranges. Track a few other key things like calcium, sodium, vitamin c and iron and make sure you are getting the proper amounts of these things (e.g. enough calcium and not too much sodium). Sodium is one thing that most people get way too much of in their diets and this can have some adverse health effects on some people.

Don't try to do everything overnight and make sure that you eat foods that you like and which leave you feeling satisfied. A great place to start is by giving your favorite meals/recipes healthy makeovers. You may need to adjust your portion sizes so you are eating less of certain things and maybe even more of other things (like fruits and veggies). Don't give up the foods you like or think that you have to just eat chicken breasts and vegetables or something like that. I have found, though, that I tend to buy more ingredients now and very few things in boxes or cans.

So I am trying to get back to a healthy weight but I do not believe in diets. I just would like to change my eating habits and eat less and make more healthy choices. The only thing that is confusing me is all the things I read about diet foods. I have read that they have so much fake ingredients and they are bad for you. For example, I have read its actually better if you are going to drink a soda to drink regular instread of diet. Its so hard to know whats healthy and whats not. Any advice?

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